After an enjoyable number of years of endurance athletics, including a couple of Ironman triathlons and several marathons, I found myself looking for other ways to keep in shape. Throw in the time suck that is endurance training, and with a young family to boot, I really needed something more practical than just sitting on a bicycle for six hour stretches.
After a couple of years of general weight training I gravitated towards body weight conditioning, which ultimately lead me to the Gymnastic Bodies book and website. And here I have stopped; and am generally convinced that I have discovered a training method that certainly ranks as the most effective for time and results, and further adds the important elements of flexibility and mobility which fits into my ‘I want to age gracefully criteria.’ At 35, after almost a year of this type of conditioning, I feel far stronger and fitter than I have ever been.
I also like the minimal equipment theories of gymnastic conditioning. Get a pull up bar, a set of rings, and away you go… Or do you…. Surely that is all I need, or is it…? More to the point, what more do I want? Let’s see, I have a basement. I have an open wall. I have a workshop. I like making stuff. Okay, I want a set of stall bars. Do I need them, not really, but they will be extremely useful, and good for my goal of doing a human flag. (I want to be a hero for my kids, is that such a bad thing to want? ) There are lots of really cool exercises that I can do, and they will be of real benefit.
So I decided to make a set.
The first set was general research. Most commercially available sets where made of some type of hardwood. Some from laminated, other more expensive ones from solid wood. I also looked at some other home made options. I saw that some people had made sets with 2 by 6 pine uprights and poplar dowels. This was a pretty cost effective solution, but to be honest, I felt a bit nervous about doing human flags over my concrete floor with a softwood solution. This is not a criticism of those who did; I full appreciate I probably over engineered my bars, but I do like the peace of mind.
I decided the strongest, most cost effective option, was to use hardwood plywood laminates. I bought two 4 x 4 sheets of 3/4 inch Russian Birch. I then ordered 12 1 3/8 inch birch doweling from a wood supply store. I spoke to the order desk woman personally, explained my application, and she made a point of checking to see that all the dowels where nice and straight. (Common problem when buying doweling, always test them on the floor to make sure they roll well.)
I then loaded up the station wagon and went over to my Dad’s place for the afternoon. Yes, 35 year old guys still need to get their Dad’s help every so often. In this case, he has a bigger workshop than I do, plus a table saw and a drill press. Both very useful for this project.
I’ll explain the rest of the construction story picture by picture.
The birch doweling and plywood artfully posing before their date with the table saw. This might sound strange, but if you are someone who appreciates wood and craftsmanship, you would love these pieces. 95% of my wood DIY is spend with construction grade wood, so to use pieces like this was a real pleasure.
My basement ceiling is 7 feet high. (Most commercial bars are 8 feet high) So, this is where the math comes in. I decided to make the uprights 4 inches wide. So, take two four by four foot pieces of plywood, and figure out how to make a seven foot tall unit, with the uprights having overhanging extensions at the top. Furthermore, the pieces had to overlap by at least 4 to 6 inches in the middle of the upright, for the purposes of strength.
Dad and I spent at least ten minutes with a ruler, pen and eraser trying to create the perfect pattern on the four by fours. This was the result.
Note the overlaps in the middle of the upright.
The unit laid out on the floor, with a lovely piece of maple for the cross piece that Dad had left over from another project.
The doweling being cut to length. Originally four feet long, they are cut to be three feet inside the unit, with 1 ¾ inches on either side to fit inside the uprights.
Now, gluing the laminates together. We didn’t use white glue; this is not a hobby shop. Dad had some commercial grade wood glue left over, which is far stronger than white glue. For further strength, the inside two plywood laminates where also screwed together with #8 1 ¼ inch wood screws. (With glue of course, and counter-sunk so they would not interfere with the outside plywood laminate.)
After the glue was dry, I then drilled the holes. Each upright is now 2 ¼ inches thick. The drill press was set to go no deeper than 1 ¾ . This puts the doweling through 2 ½ plywood sheets, but still leaves a bit of wood to firmly attach the dowel. And always use safety equipment!
Belt sand to get the edges off, then palm sand for the smooth touch.
The varnished pieces ready for installation.
Installed! I love the utilitarian aesthetic of the laminated plywood. I also love how the camera flash brings out an ancient chalk drawing on the wall.
Close up of the bars… lovely.
Mounting hardware. Nice deep set concrete anchors. Note the round end Robertson screws as well. Those are #10 1 ½ inch screws holding the dowels. I could have countersunk the screws, but I liked the look of the round heads against the wood.
Now, what shall I do with all of these leftovers… These are just five out of the remaining 12.
A quick trip to the camping store, a couple pieces of webbing later, and I have nice push up bars. Makes it easy to transition from pull ups on the rings to quickly dropping down for some pushups. And they look pretty cool as well.
yours,
David Barclay
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